Karuizawa 1983 - Bottle 2014 - Sherry Cask (The Whisky Exchange)
Photo taken somewhere in Stuttgart
This blade of a whisky was the other one of our two best whiskies we tried at the Whiskyshow in London. No need to mention that this expression is blowing the budget of most people (including us ). What's in fact mentionable: It represents the complete antithesis of the delightful and most elegant Rosebank we loved (93 points). You are about to see...
Nose
Holy sword of Hattori Hanzo! The darkest elegance you can imagine. The finest of all fine woods, mostly sandalwood and cedar, best tobacco from cuba, some sulphur and old library bookleather. And mushrooms (penny buns and truffle).This is a first time!
With water: Getting sweeter with dark chocolate and dried mango, everything spiced with black tellycherry pepper. Fantastic!
Palate
An ancient galley loaded with tons of cedar wood, spices (mostly black pepper), dates, gun powder and a few coal nuggets just docked and unloaded the whole cargo on your tongue. It's so heavy, oily and fat. Very different to all those japanese Malts we had till date, which were mostly gentle (or floral and perfumy). This is huge and interstellar. We should stop here, seriously.
Finish
A never ending journey into the jungle of pure cocoa bitterness, astringency, gloves and star anis. Plus lemom cests and pure iodine.
Rating
This is Whisky close to perfection, if you are into the heavy stuff. It's a question of the perspective and personality if a bottle is worth for you a few thousand bucks. But cross your heart, we would rather go for this magnificent liquid instead of buying two bottles of a certain "lost distillery" on Islay, which is pretty overrated in our book. Well, no revival of Karuizawa distillery in sight so far.
